The respected session musician also appeared on Robert Plant's debut solo album Pictures At Eleven, Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, and Mike Oldfield's Islands and Earth Moving. He also wrote books on sax technique.

Baker Street, from Rafferty's second solo album City to City, won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically And Lyrically in 1978. In 2010 it was recognized for having been played over 5,000,000 times.